HOW TO DETECT ROMANCE & DATING SCAMS FROM AFRICA

I have heard people asking this question severally in some forums about how to detect romance/dating scams from Africa, so I decided to write about it. This issue has become a canker in this modern era where innocent people use the internet as means to find love and relationship.

What is romance/dating scam?

According to Wikipedia, romance scam is a confidence trick involving feigned romantic intentions towards a victim, gaining their affection, and then using that good will to commit fraud.

How then do I detect if my online romance is a scam?

Before I continue, let me state this, romance scam is closely related to business scam where someone proposes a business idea to you and asks for money. Your romance partner can propose a business i.e. Gold business, and ask for BIG money. I will limit myself to romance scam only.

You will normally meet these scammers on various dating sites. They tend to use someone’s persona to get unsuspecting potential victims known as ‘client’.

It is either they will message you first or you will rather message them thinking that they are genuine people, within few days of chatting; he or she will profess love to you. They will normally request for your email address so that they can communicate with you privately.

Normally, they write bad English- the reason is simple; it is because most of them are illiterate. But occasionally you will meet people with good English language abilities.

They will immediately ask for money. It is as if he or she is in hurry to get your money and discard you for another victim.

How do they request for money?

They will request for money to acquire passport, visa and plane ticket to visit you. This is a lie as they will only take the money and present you with another fake story or lie.

You will be presented with a story that he or she has been plagued with a medical condition or other life threatening problem requiring money or loan from you for treatment.

You will be presented with a lie that he or she has gold (or other precious mineral) inheritance requiring you to purchase it or requiring you to facilitate its transport to your destination at your own cost, though it is supposed to be a gift to you.

How is it possible that he or she is using someone’s persona since we do live chat on webcam?

This is an important question. The answer is simple; do not believe everything you see via webcam. What West African scammers do is that they edit live videos of adult sex performers and other pretty ladies/gentlemen. These videos are then played to you thereby making you believe that they are those in the videos. They are clever at that; I give them a plus for that. I have personally witness someone do this trick in my presence. To know if the one you are chatting with is actually the one in the video, please request that he or she writes a word or sentence on a piece of paper and shows it to the webcam. This method doesn’t work 100% as some scammers actually hire someone else to show you his/her nakedness, so they can write it.

What should i do?

Do not send money to anyone you meet online unless you’ve physically met the person.

If your romance partner with name ‘A’ asks you to send money in the name of someone else, please do not do it: this means that he or she is impersonating someone else. Do not even seek for clarification because you will be lied to. They are good in covering up their tracks with lies.

Do not send money if he or she claims to be European or American residing in West Africa for some reason.

Place a phone call or send an email to your romance partner’s school or work place and find out if she or he actually works/schools there as claimed.

In conclusion

African women are very religious, conservative and traditional when it comes to relationships. This means that an average African woman born and raised in Africa by African parents will not set up an account on a dating site to search for a partner. If you truly want to date an African woman or man, then get your flight ticket and visit any African country of your choice. Hotel cost can be as low as 10 USD per day and food can be as low as 1 USD. Most African countries offer visa free or visa-on-arrival so that shouldn’t be a problem at all. Attend local festivals, clubs etc. and meet people. Get to know someone of your choice and start a genuine relationship out of love. Romance/dating scams from Africa are real so stay safe.